APPENDIX F.

IMPROVEMENT OF RIVERS AND HARBORS ON SOUTHWESTERN SHORE OF LONG ISLAND AND NEAR STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK, AND IN NORTHEASTERN NEW JERSEY.

REPORT OF CAPTAIN THOS. L. CASEY, CORPS OF ENGINEERS, OFFICER IN CHARGE, FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1892, WITH OTHER DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE WORKS.

UNITED STATES ENGINEER OFFICE,

New York, July 8, 1892. GENERAL: I have the honor to transmit herewith my annual report on the works of river and harbor improvement in my charge for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

THOS. L. CASEY,

Captain, Corps of Engineers.

IMPROVEMENT OF SUMPAWANUS INLET, NEW YORK.

Sumpawanus Inlet, known in the neighborhood and on the Coast Survey charts as Sumpawams Creek, is a small creek on the south side of Long Island, emptying into the Great South Bay. It lies about 36 miles east of New York City, 15 miles east of the western end of Great South Bay, and nearly twice as far from its eastern end.

Fire Island Inlet, through which most of the waters of Great South Bay pass into the Atlantic Ocean, lies south-southeast of Sumpawams Creek, distance about 6 miles in a direct line, but 11 miles by the channel. The inlet is a tidal stream from 100 to 200 feet wide, running up to the town of Babylon, Long Island, which lies less than a mile north of the mouth. It is crossed here by a dam, which forms a reservoir for the fresh water of a small creek which supplies the town with water. The mean rise and fall of the tides at the mouth of the inlet is only 1.3 feet, and the bottom of the bay and of the inlet is soft mud.

The first survey of Sumpawams Creek of which we have any record was ordered by act of Congress, approved June 14, 1880, and was made during the fall of 1881, under the direction of Gen. (then Col.) John Newton, Corps of Engineers. His report may be found in the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1881, Part I, page 653.

The project of improvement, based upon this survey, provided for dredging a channel 150 feet wide and 5 feet deep at mean low water from the 5-foot curve in the bay to the steamboat dock at the mouth of the creek, a distance of about 1,500 feet, and thence 5 feet deep and 100 feet wide up the inlet to the town of Babylon, a distance of about 3,500 feet farther. The estimated cost of making this improvement was $23,115.

The mean range of the tides at the mouth of the inlet being only 1.3 feet, there was practically no current swift enough to produce scour. The depth of water in the proposed channel, at the time of the survey, was from 1 to 3 feet in the creek and from 3 to 5 feet outside. It was not believed that diking would assist in improving this entrance, and inquiry showed that the depth of water both outside and inside the inlet had materially diminished in late years.

The amount expended under the project to June 30, 1891, was $7,000, giving a channel 75 feet wide and 5 feet deep from the steamboat wharf to a point 750 feet below it, besides two cuts, each 25 feet wide, alongside the wharf. Outside of the cut so made and extending to the 5-foot curve in the bay a shoal was left on which the depth was only about 43 feet.

An examination made in 1886 showed that since the last dredging was done, in 1883, both the cut and the flat outside had shoaled from 6 inches to 1 foot, the depth in the cut being about 5 feet, while on the flat it was from 4 to 4 feet. This was to have been anticipated, as appears by the preliminary report made by Gen. Newton. The 5-foot curve in the bay was 1,500 feet from the steamboat wharf, but inside this curve, for about 750 feet towards the wharf, lay the flat.

The commerce of Sumpawams Creek is essentially that of Babylon, a small town of from 3,000 to 5,000 inhabitants 1 mile above the mouth of the creek, depending almost entirely upon summer trade of the hotels and the cottages along the north shore of Great South Bay and on Fire Island Beach.

The commerce of Babylon by water has been decreasing, apparently, because the Long Island Railroad has taken away the seagoing business. Babylon itself has improved and has become a fashionable summer resort. At present its commerce by sea is carried on by three passenger steamboats drawing from 4 to 5 feet, running in summer to Fire Island Beach; three schooners, drawing from 5 to 54 feet, carrying brick, lime, lumber, and other heavy freight to Babylon the year round; one hundred sloops and pleasure boats, drawing from 1 to 2 feet of water, taking out sailing and fishing parties in summer, of which seven

or eight remain in use during the winter fishing and taking oysters and clams to Patchogue, Sayville, and New York.

The commerce of the creek, in my judgment, does not warrant the formation of a channel more than 5 feet deep from the 5-foot curve in the bay to the steamboat wharf for the convenience of the few steamers and schooners which make use of the creek.

It is stated that the shoals in the bay kill the sea so entirely that pleasure boats can now lie in the mouth of the creek in all weather.

So far as the extension of the improvement from the steamboat dock up to the inlet is concerned there appears to be no reason why the Government of the United States should undertake it.

The original estimate of the cost of the work was $23,115. Seven thousand dollars have been appropriated.

Ten thousand dollars can be expended in giving a 5-foot channel out into the bay for the use of steamboats, but I think that the work is more a matter of local than public interest.

This work is in the collection district of New York, which is the nearest port of entry. Nearest light-house, Fire Island Light. Nearest fort, Fort Hamilton. The amount of revenue collected at the port of New York during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, was $120,732,613.89.

$16, 115.00

Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project..
Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30, 1894 10, 000.00
Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and
harbor acts of 1866 and 1867.

COMMERCIAL STATISTICS.

The following statistics relative to the commerce of Sumpawanus Inlet, New York, during the past year, were kindly furnished by the Hon. James B. Cooper, justice of the peace, Babylon, Long Island.

The above table shows an increase of 129 tons over that reported for the year ending December 31, 1890.

F 2.

IMPROVEMENT OF CANARSIE BAY, NEW YORK.

The first survey of this bay with a view to its improvement was made in 1879. The scheme of improvement involved a channel 6 feet deep at mean low water and 100 to 150 feet wide, extending from the shore at Canarsie Landing to the navigable channel in Jamaica Bay, a distance of about 3,500 feet. It was thought that the channel might be maintained by the construction of two pile dikes, forming a tidal reservoir. The estimated cost under this project was $88,000. A history of the work in considerable detail is given in the Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers for 1887, Part I, page 637.

The total amount expended upon this work up to June 30, 1891, was $42,688.36, with which two pile dikes had been built on the north and south sides of the channel at its entrance into Jamaica Bay, 1,058 and 820 feet in length, respectively, and the channel dredged to a depth of 6 feet at mean low water, with widths of 50 to 125 feet, from Canarsie Landing to the deep water of the bay. In addition to this several other improvements, not contemplated in the main project, but which added materially to the facility of navigation or to the maintenance of the channel, had been executed, viz, the excavation of a cut 100 feet long and 50 feet wide, with a depth of 6 feet, on the east side of the steamboat landing at Canarsie, and a cut at the end of the wharf at Canarsie Landing extending through to the southwest to connect with the southwest channel, the latter for the purpose of promoting tidal circulation. The tidal currents are due to a mean rise and fall of 4.7 feet.

Under the contract with Elijah Brainard, alluded to in my last Report and dated March 20, 1891, for the removal of about 13,000 cubic yards of material at 24 cents per cubic yard, operations were begun August 20, 1891, and concluded September 19, 1891, the amount removed having been 12,760 cubic yards. This work resulted in an increase of the channel width of 50 feet for a distance of 1,950 feet from the landing at Canarsie, one cut being dredged from each side. Two cuts were also taken from the south side of the channel, extending for a distance of 600 feet from the outer end of the north dike, and a single cut 180 feet in length along the side of the dock at Canarsie Landing. The main channel has now, therefore, a width of 100 to 150 feet from Canarsie Landing to the deep water of Jamaica Bay, with a minimum depth of 6 feet at mean low water.

Authority was granted by the Chief of Engineers on November 20, 1891, to make some necessary repairs on the North Dike by hired labor and the purchase of materials in open market, as being most economical and advantageous to the Government under existing conditions. Work was begun December 11, 1891, and the repairs completed January 11, 1892, at a total cost of $1,100.25. These dikes, although perhaps not essential to the maintenance of the channel, seem to be of sufficient benefit as a protection for the entrance against floating ice to warrant their repair from time to time.

The expenditures during the past fiscal year amount to $5,255.77, as follows:

Canarsie Landing, besides being the terminus of the Brooklyn, Rockaway Beach and Jamaica Bay Railroad, from which passengers are transshipped by steamer to Rockaway Beach, has a large fishing industry.

It is thought that $10,000 will be sufficient to complete the channel and keep the dikes in repair, and an appropriation of this amount is therefore recommended.

This work is in the collection district of New York, which is the nearest port of entry. Nearest light-house, Fort Tompkins Light. Nearest fort, Fort Hamilton. The amount of revenue collected at the port of New York during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892, is $120,732,613.89.

Amount (estimated) required for completion of existing project....

Amount that can be profitably expended in fiscal year ending June 30, 1894 10,000.00 Submitted in compliance with requirements of sections 2 of river and harbor acts of 1866 and 1867.

35,000.00

COMMERCIAL STATISTICS.

The following statistics relative to the commerce of Canarsie Bay, New York, during the year ending December 31, 1891, were kindly furnished by Mr. William Warner, superintendent of the Brooklyn, Rockaway Beach and Jamaica Bay Railroad:

The above table shows an increase in the commerce of 5,412 tons over that reported for the year ending December 31, 1890.